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THE MAKERS 
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COPYRIGHT, 1895 

BY 

WALKER & PRATT MANUFACTURING CO. 

MAKERS OF THE 

CRAWFORD RANGES 

THE MOST THOROUGHLY MADE RANGES 
IN THE WORLD 



FACTORY AT WATERTOWN, MASS. 

ESTABLISHED FORTY YEARS 

PRINCIPAL OFFICE AND SALESROOM 

31-35 UNION STREET, BOSTON, MASS. 



AN HOUR 

IN A NEW ENGLAND 

STOVE FACTORY 



STOVES are made, you know, from 
pig iron. That comes to us from 
Pennsylvania, mostly; 
but some from the South 
— Alabama, Tennessee 
or Georgia. It is called 
"pig" iron because of 
the form in which we 
get it; rough pieces or 
" pigs" a yard long and 
three or four inches thick, 
each weighing a hundred 
pounds. Northern irons 
are stronger, usually, 
than Southern irons. We blend half a 
dozen brands to get just the right iron 
mixture for our work. 




PILE OF PIG IRON 



pig iron into stoves, is 




DESIGNING ROOM 



How to make 
our story. 

First we make a pattern of each piece 
in the stove, a whole pattern-stove, of 
pine wood, usually. In 
making this wood pat- 
tern-stove we study the 
proportions for perfect 
operation ; the appear- 
ance, design, form of 
each piece, to make the 
stove attractive and easy 
to sell ; the shape and 
thickness of the parts to make them stand 
the heat and blows of use and misuse ; the 
ease of putting the stove together ; the way 
to get it apart if it should need repairing, 
and a dozen other things which must be 
thought of. All this requires study, expe- 
rience, taste, skill and a "knack." It is a 

year, perhaps, after 
the designer begins, 
before we can offer a 
stove for sale. 

But this pattern- 
stove of wood cannot 
itself be used to make 




VIEW IN PATTERN SHOP 




FINISHING IRON PATTERNS 



other stoves from. It 
is too frail and damp- 
ness makes it warp 
and swell, so that the 
castings would differ 
— would not be exact 
duplicates. And, as 
we shall explain, 
moist sand is used to 

form the molds. So we make from the 
wood pattern- stove very carefully another 
stove of iron, and the parts of this 
second stove we use as patterns in making 
the stoves we sell. 

Now there is a curi- 
ous thing about iron 
castings : the castings 
are always a little 
smaller than the pat- 
tern from which they 
are made. To put 
it differently, iron 
"shrinks" in casting 
and the amount of 
shrink is about one- 
eighth of an inch in a 
foot, or three-eighths of an inch in a yard. 




PATTERN STOREHOUSE 



Therefore the iron pattern-stove must be a 
little larger than the stove we want to 
make. The wood pattern-stove must be 
even larger, two "shrinks" large, one- 
quarter of an inch to the foot, three- 
quarters of an inch to the yard. If we 
did not remember this in making patterns, 
we should not produce stoves of a given 
size ; for instance, with ovens twenty 
inches square on the bottom, which is a 
sort of standard among stove makers. 

To make this easy we 
have rules or measures 
which are like common 
rules except a little longer. 
Thus a "double-shrink" 
two-foot rule is 24^ inches long, but 
divided into twenty-four equal parts, for 
inches, like any other rule ; each inch 
being of course a very little longer than 
a standard inch. We use 
such rules, either u single- 
shrink" or "double- 
shrink," in making draw- 
ings and measuring pat- 
terns. 
Having made the patterns 



... 
SHRINK RULES 




FLASK SHOP 



ready, of iron, perfectly 
smooth all over like 
polished glass — for this 
is necessary in making 
smooth castings — we 
brush them with wax to 
keep them from rusting, 
and then they are ready 
for the molders. 




FLASKS PILED IN YARD 




In the foundry we use " flasks" — not 

the glass kind, ours are of wood 

— wooden boxes, without tops 

or bottoms. Into these the 

sand is packed to make the 

molds. Common flasks are in 

"T two parts, the "nowel" and 

u cope." Cope means cover, 

of course, and is the part that covers the 

nowel. Let us try to explain. 

Suppose we are to make a mold for 
a simple piece, like a small door. (Fig. i . ) 
The pattern-door, face up, is 
laid upon a board, called 
a " mold-board." (Fig. 2.) % 
Then we lay the nowel upside 






FIG. 4 



down, on the mold-board, enclosing the 
pattern. (Fig. 3.) 

Now the molder, with a 
" riddle," sifts fine, moist 
sand into the nowel until the 
pattern is covered, perhaps half 
an inch deep. Next he fills 
the nowel with unsifted sand 
5 3 and packs it down with his 

rammer. This sounds easy, 
but it isn't. The exact 
moisture, or "temper" of 
the sand, how hard to ram, 
the places to ram hard and 
the places to ram soft ; these 
things are the molder's riddle 

business — a part of it. 

After the nowel is rammed 
full, the sand is levelled off — 
t; struck" off as the molders say 
— with a "strike" or straight 
edged piece of wood or iron. 
Another board, called the 
"bottom-board," is laid upon 
the nowel ; and then the whole 
is turned over, nowel * and both boards 
together. (Fig. 4.) The bottom-board is 



;f ■•■.■::,■■ 




underneath ; the mold-board, now on top, 
is lifted off, and you may see the pattern 
lying face down in the closely 
packed sand. (Fig. 5.) 

Any loose sand is brushed 
away, and the top surface of 
the sand in the nowel is 
showered with dry u part- 
ing-sand." The parting-sand 
lodging on the pattern is 
blown off with a bellows. Next the empty 
cope is placed on the nowel, guided into 
place by two or three cast-iron pins, fitting 
holes in the edge of the nowel, and the 
cope, like the nowel, is filled with closely 
rammed sand. The pat- 
tern, of course, is entirely 
buried in the sand. 

The cope is now lifted 
off. The sand in the 
cope does not adhere to 
the sand in the nowel ; 
that is prevented by the 
parting- sand. Then the 
pattern is u rapped " 
lightly with a mallet and 
carefully lifted or " drawn" 




DRAWING THE PATTERN 



from its own impression in the sand. If 
the casting must have a nicely finished 
surface, a " facing" of powdered charcoal 
and black lead is shaken over the nowel 
part of the mold, and to press this facing 
smoothly into the sand the pattern is laid 
or " printed " back into the mold for a 
moment. All our molds for outside parts 
of stoves are ' ' faced " and the patterns 
u printed " back in this way. The " face " 
side of the piece is usually the u nowel " 
side ; we make castings face downward 
because impurities in the 
melted iron tend to rise, and 
the smooth side of a casting 
is the lower side, as it lies 
in the mold. 

The cope is replaced and 
clamped upon the nowel, 
leaving a hollow space, of 
course, just the shape of the 
pattern, ready to receive the melted iron. 
One thing, however, we have not de- 
scribed : how the melted iron enters the 
mold. Well, an inlet is arranged by the 
molder, and you can see the hole or 
u sprue " in the top of the sand, perhaps 




an inch in diameter, a little larger at the 
top, into which the iron is poured. 
(Fig. 6.) 

Now we have the mold ready for the 
melted iron. 




IN THE FOUNDRY - - BEFORE POURING-TIME 



Using different flasks and bottom-boards, 
but the same mold-board and pattern, each 
molder covers his "floor" with molds 



like this. If large, difficult pieces, like 
range tops or bottoms, ten to sixteen flasks 
may be a day's work ; if smaller pieces, 
twenty or thirty flasks, or perhaps as 
many as fifty or sixty flasks. 



# ■' 




CUPOLA-STACK 



While the molders have been making 
molds, the melter, — "skipper" we used 
to call him — with his helpers, has been 
preparing the cupola furnace 
for the day's " melt." The 
cupola is an upright plate- 
iron cylinder or shell, five or 
six feet in diameter ; its lower 
end is stopped by heavy 
hinged iron doors ; the top or 
u stack" extends out through 
the roof. The shell of the 
cupola is lined with the best 
firebrick. The fuel and pig iron are thrown 
into the cupola at the " charging-door," a 
dozen feet above the floor, the cupola men 
working on a stage or u charging- 
floor " at the convenient height. 

Coke and iron are u charged" in 
alternate layers, with pine kind- 
lings at the bottom of the cupola. 
The fire is lighted about noon and 
burns slowly until about quarter 
past three in the afternoon. 
Then the blower is started, 
and the "wind" or blast be- 
gins. Soon the melted iron 




MOLDER AND LADLE 





CATCHING MELTED IRON 



begins to " come down," 
as we say, and flows in a 
brilliant stream through a 
spout in the front of the 
cupola, near the bottom. 
This is the most pictur- 
esque part of our work. 
The liquid appears to be of 

the thickness of cream, 
and the color of fire ; a 
bright yellow ; almost 
white on a dark day. 

The molders, in turn, 
"catch" the iron and 
carry it in ladles to 
their molds. For pour- 
ing heavy castings we 
use a "bull" ladle, 
carried by three men, 
we use a 
lifted by a 
We also use 
two-wheeled 
five or six 
For stove 



BULL LADLE 



and sometimes 

" crane " ladle, 

hoisting crane. 

a "buggy" or 

cart, carrying 

hundred pounds. 

castings, however, we use 

mostly the u single-hand " 



13 




IRON-BUGGY 



ladle, which holds about fifty pounds of 
melted iron, 

Simple as it seems, pouring iron into 
molds for stove castings is anything but 
easy. When to pour fast, or slow, exactly 
when to stop, how hot or cool the iron, are 
some of the topics molders discuss. Not 
only the weight of liquid iron — it is about 
seven times as heavy as water — but its pe- 
culiar action upon entering the moist mold, 
serve to complicate the art of pouring. 

Thin castings, like parts of stoves, cool 
in a few minutes after being u poured." 
Heavy pieces, like parts of furnaces or 
steam-heaters, which we also make, may 
require several hours. When the castings 
are cool enough, they are u shaken out" 
of the flasks, and piled at the end of the 
molder's floor. The sand is moistened 
anew so as to be of the proper u temper," 
mixed by being u cut" with a shovel, and 
left in a heap ready for the next day. 



After the molding and pouring the pro- 
cesses are perhaps a little less interesting. 



14 



In the " scratch shop" the castings are 
cleaned by wire brushes or by " rattling " 
in revolving " tumbling barrels." Then 
the castings are sorted, weighed and carried 
to their respective bins. Some pieces go 
to the machine shop, others to the polishing 
and plating departments. 

In the "mounting shop" the finished 
parts are fitted to 
make complete 
stoves. Drills and 
emery-wheels are 
used in mounting 
and fitting the 
plates. Emery- 
wheels whirling a 
thousand times a 
minute are useful 
tools, but they are far from quiet ; the 
noise of a dozen wheels managed by ex- 
perts is distracting, and the showers of 
sparks are dazzling ; yet the men don't 
seem to mind it. The mounters work 
with the greatest accuracy, and it is largely 
upon the excellent fitting or mounting 
that the successful operation of a range 
depends. 




ONE OF THE MOUNTING SHOPS 



*5 



After passing a 
stoves are sent to 



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rigid inspection, the 
the storehouse. Here 
they are piled three or 
four high, ready to be 
shipped anywhere, 
even to Africa ; we 
send more than a 
thousand a year there. 



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PILE OF RANGES 



must, of course, 
from complete. 



This story of the 
making of a stove 
be very brief and far 
The core shop and its 
ovens, where cores for hollow castings are 
made and baked ; the testing room, where 
hollow pieces like waterfronts are tested 
by water pressure at 150 pounds to the 
square inch ; the machine shop, where 
castings are turned, 
planed, drilled or 
tapped ; the sand house, 
where the Albany mold- 
ing sand of a fine quality 
suitable for high grade 
castings is dried in ovens 




16 



N THE CORE SHOP 



and carefully bolted ; the blacksmith shop, 
boiler house, engine and pump room, pat- 
tern storehouse and other interesting places, 
we cannot describe in detail here. Not 
the least important is the room where a 
sample bar of the iron melted each day is 
carefully examined 
to ascertain its 
shrinkage, and its 
breaki ng st r e n g t h 
determined by an 
accurate testing 
machine. 




MACHINE SHOP 



Our works have 
been established forty years ; they are our 
pride ; the basis of our reputation as stove 
makers. Whatever value there is in tra- 
dition, experience, skill, accumulated and 
handed down through these years — we 
have it, and are using it in connection 
with the best materials, best tools, best ap- 
pliances and best mechanics in the world. 
Our products, especially the well-known 
Crawford Ranges, are therefore supe- 



rior ; often imitated, never excelled or even 
approached in quality. Our stoves are 
known wherever stoves are used ; ask any 
foundryman about them. 



We would like to show you more about 
stove making. Come and see us — come 
about three o'clock and see the melted 
iron. 




ENGINE ROOM 



CRAWFORD RANGES 

Are properly designed, well made and 
thoroughly fitted by experienced and care- 
ful workmen. 

Therefore, Crawford Ranges look well, 
work well, are easily managed, keep fire 
well, bake nicely, are convenient, econom- 
ical, and very durable. 

What more can be said? 

Possibly a Crawford Range may cost a 
dollar or two more than some other, but 
spend the dollar ; it will be well invested. 
A Crawford Range will help you to many 
years of happiness. 

Catalogue on request. 



WALKER & PRATT MFG. CO, 

MANUFACTURERS: 
31-35 UNION STREET, BOSTON 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 






016 066 255 4 £ 



WALKER & PRATT MFG. CO 

31-35 UNION STREET, BOSTON 



MAKERS OF THE 



CRAWFORD RANGES 



FURNACES WATER-HEATERS 
STEAM-HEATERS 



Conservation Resources 
Lig-Free® Type I 
Ph 8.5, Buffered 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




016 066 255 4 



% 



